Ves assumed a more confident and domineering posture. He had to convey the impression that hehad a 'god' on his side and did not have much restraint towards the idea of sending her out onanother destructive spree.Minister Shederin Purnesse made the same conclusions and began to feed a lot of useful advice andtips on how Ves should approach this conversation."Not enough. It is not enough, patriarch." The old man spoke over a private communication channel."You need to look and sound more arrogant and vindictive. The pescans are accustomed to bowingtheir heads in front of the arrogant nunsers, so our goal is to tap into their old psychologicalreflexes. Do not forget that you hold the power of life and death over the remaining survivors. Youneed to treat these aliens as if they are already at your mercy."The foreign minister was correct. Ves needed to fully play into this act in order to lower the chancethat Great Chief Jaharon would act in spite or make any other outrageous moves."Do not talk about opening the portal or surrendering the control room first. That will make yousound desperate and give more leverage to the aliens. Instead, approach this conversation from theperspective of a leader who already has everything in hand but wants to extract more value out of aweak race. Ask more questions about the pescans. Make it look as if you are a collector that wants tosurvey his wares."Though that sounded a bit strange to Ves, he quickly made the necessary adjustments."Jaharon." He addressed the tired-looking alien directly. "As you can clearly see, your race stood nochance in defeating my 'goddess' and champion. None of the subordinates you have left can offerany meaningful resistance against us. While your crimes towards our great human race are great, Istill see value in your people. Not many members of your race are alive anymore. They have becomerare, and everything that is scarce holds greater value than before. I would prefer it if you do notmake an unwise decision and spoil my merchandise."The alien leader looked meeker and less defiant than before. Just as predicted, Jaharon fell back intoa more subservient aspect of himself when he thought he was facing an overwhelmingly powerfulgroup of a superior race.[We ask for living. Too small left. Never ask for fight. Woman god destroyed our big god. No longertunnel to distant stars. Death and block is waiting us. We are lost.]Huh?Jaharon threw out a lot of information in very little words. Ves had to ask a few more questions andenlist the aid of Minister Shederin to decipher what the aliens were saying.Through the confusing but also illuminating words of the pescan leader that had been driven intodespair, Ves and the others managed to puzzle out the alien master plan.Even if it was not quite accurate or complete, Ves strongly felt that this was the reason foreverything that happened in this abandoned alien facility!It started from the moment the pescans evacuated into this pocket space in haste.Just as many people had already guessed, the colonization fleet of the founders of Davute trulystruck too quickly and ferociously for the pescan remnants to evacuate too many individuals andsupplies.The aliens who barely managed to escape the genocide of their entire race had a miserable timewhile reluctantly trying to build a settlement on these floors.They did not dare to spread out and occupy the rest of the prison because they felt it was toooppressive and would bring them too far away from their other surviving compatriots.Although the aliens tried to start up farms and set up water recycling plants, they simply did notbring enough supplies to sustain their current level of population once they depleted their stockpileof prepared emergency food containers!This had a strong psychological effect on the pescans. Not only did many of them lose the prospectof having children, they might even have to kill off the weakest and most useless survivors amongthem in order to ensure the entire population remained sustainable over the long term![Dark and death stalk the god prison. No longer cry as crying as died. Anti-home no home for us toodark and no life. Future is in stars of distant. Must find leave.]The pescans couldn't stand the thought of living in this ancient prison for the rest of their lives!It did not matter that it was safe and completely hidden from the humans that had built their newsettlements on top of the former cities of the pescan civilization.The pescans wanted to live! They wanted to evacuate from the planet by whatever means possibleand take refuge with the aliens who still managed to defend their territories against the relentlessonslaught of the human invaders.Fortunately, the ancient prison might have become a shadow of its former self, but the pescans whoexplored its state managed to gain limited control of it and learn a few pieces of crucial information.The pescans somehow gained access to a feed to normal space. This enabled them to study thehumans over many years and conclude that breaking out on their own would instantly get themkilled by lots of mechs.The remnant aliens also figured out how to control certain internal processes such as putting peoplein and out of the cells as well as take people directly who were present in the middle of theGovernment District of Kotor City!After a bit more tinkering with the primary control room, the pescans also managed to discover thegreatest secret of this ancient prison.Its largest and most well-defended cell held a living prisoner![The ancient forgotten god bleeds with vengeance and freedom. Dark but sleep, can help break cagethat is wrapping after cooperation. Needed much words to placate god and beg for stomach pass todistant stars. Too bleed is weak must make you human stabbers turn knifes away.]"So that is what was going on all of this time!" General Verle managed to deduce the truth. "Therewas a phase whale sleeping in the central cell that could break out of the prison and take the pescansurvivors out of human-occupied space. However, the Great Chief Jaharon did not have confidencethat a single weakened phase whale could get them past so many powerful human forces. This iswhy the pescans bided their time. They wanted to gain more leverage over us in order to negotiatefor safe passage."This was a clever plan and one that probably had the highest chance of success. Though the pescansseriously underestimated the ruthlessness of humans, it was plausible for Davute to pay a heavyprice to the MTA to secure safe passage for these aliens.There was only one hindrance to the plan.The interdiction fields that the colonial government maintained throughout Kotor City butespecially the Government District prevented the pescans from taking valuable humans hostage!Without any leverage, the pescans recognized they had little hope in their ability to escape frombeyond the confines of human-controlled space.This was why they decided to wait for better opportunities. If too much time had passed without anypositive developments, then Great Chief Jaharon had no choice but to enact his most desparate planand break out of the ancient prison without human hostages.It was rather coincidental that the conquering humans chose to organize a founding ceremony onthis day.The pescans were also lucky enough that a lot of human VIPs and important leaders happened togather in the center of the Government District on this important day!What was even better was that the Karlachs successfully launched a surprise attack against theDavutans in the very same Government District!After all of this took place, what truly enabled the pescans to enact their bold plan to take as manyhigh-value hostages as possible was that the sabotage committed by the Karlachs also knocked outthe warp interdiction field generators!In the period they remained knocked offline, it became possible for the pescans to remotely teleporta lot of humans to the prison cells inside the hidden pocket space!Ves couldn't believe that the pescans came up with such a convoluted plan that depended on somany different factors falling into place, only for all of that to happen anyway!Personally, he put most of the blame on the rulers and owners of Davute. They were incrediblyarrogant about building their seat of government on top of the most central location of the greatestpescan city-state to exist.The Davutans also showed insufficient regard for safety by compelling so many important figures toattend the founding ceremony at the front rows in such great numbers.What Ves finally faulted these darned Davutans for was that all of this could have been avoided ifthey had been a lot more thorough about hunting down any remaining survivors of the pescan race.Perhaps it was not all that bad, though. The humans here had won the most important battle whileVes was in a position to extract a lot of possible benefits from the final remaining leader of theformer occupants of this planet.He just had to make sure to maintain the illusion of power while also making sure he did not drivethe aliens into going down in a final blaze of glory.Ves started to think on how he could accomplish this. He already had a few ideas."I prefer not to kill you all. The prisoners that my men have already taken are too few to sustain ahealthy slave population. If you agree to lay down arms, I can promise you that the other humanswill not exterminate your race. To me, that is a huge waste of value. I am a businessman and acollector, and I see great value in keeping you in my private zoo."His words caught the alien off-guard. [Understanding no. Death is scheduled as last god stabbed todie. Stab killers must tear our meat.]Ves shook his head."No. I will not allow you to die. Do not underestimate my power. I not only have a goddess under mycommand, but I am a friend of the Mech Trade Association. You know about the MTA, right? I amtheir collaborator, and I have many more privileges than you think. For example, I am allowed tomaintain a private collection of intelligent aliens for my own use. Look at what I have obtained upuntil this point."He activated a second projection that displayed the Dragon's Den. The half-organic, half-mechanicalstarship looked so advanced and exotic to the alien great chief that he could not tell how powerful itwas. The pescans had never been a starfaring race so their vision of spacecraft was too limited.The projection changed to display the interior of the biomes that made the Dragon's Den so valuableto the Larkinson Clan.It displayed many different alien forests, plains and other terrain features that provided comfortableif somewhat limited habitats to many different exobeasts.The most important biome was the one that housed tens of thousands of members of the pakklatonrace.After years of captivity, the alien refugees turned test subjects tried to make the most of their newforest biome. They built huts and settlements in the trees and built up a functional society where theavian aliens could raise their children in relative peace.It was not a dignified state of existence, but at least these captured aliens managed to stay alive!After spending several years in constant fear and after suffering an enormous blow from a powerfulhuman 'goddess', the few remaining pescans left alive became a lot more willing to seek a moreoutcome in their doomed conflict against the invaders of another galaxy![Possible speaking confession survival.] Great Chief Jaharon said as his tall body drooped evenfurther. [Must create pact and sever further knives.]"You do not have the qualifications to impose demands on us." Ves responded with a smirk as hemaintained his superior act. "I have told you what I seek from your race. It is up to you to accept orrefuse the only offer that will allow you and your fellow survivors to live past this day. Surrender andlive. Resist and die. Choose quickly, because my patience is at a limit."It only took three more minutes for the transphasic energy shields that shielded the final entranceto disappear.

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